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Fractyl Laboratories has received approval from the FDA of an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) to begin a pivotal study of Revita DMR in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients treated with insulin. This landmark pivotal study, called Revita T2Di, is a prospective, randomised, double-blind, sham-controlled study enrolling 300 patients at up to 35 sites around the world, with approximately 25 sites in the US.

Laparoscopic banded sleeve gastrectomy (LBSG) appears to be significantly more effective than laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) in terms of weight loss in the midterm follow-up, according to researchers from Italy. The randomised study, ‘Banded Sleeve Gastrectomy Improves Weight Loss Compared to Nonbanded Sleeve: Midterm Results from a Prospective Randomized Study’, published in the Journal of Obesity, sought to compare LBSG and LSG over a four-year follow-up.

Ethicon has announced its continued support of guidelines from the Society for American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), which recommends the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and smoke evacuation in the operating room during laparoscopic and open surgery.

Xeris Pharmaceuticals has announced positive findings from the outpatient stage of a Phase 2 proof-of-concept study of its developmental ready-to-use (RTU) glucagon in patients who experience postprandial hypoglycaemic episodes following bariatric surgery.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia, Canada, believe they have identified a gene that may prevent weight gain, after using a genetic database of more than 47,000 people in Estonia. The gene is linked to thinness and may play a role in resisting weight gain in these metabolically healthy thin people. Deleting the gene resulted in thinner flies and mice, and that the expression of it in the brain may be involved in regulating energy expenditure.

Boston University School of Medicine researchers have discovered that anti-obesity medications such as phentermine and topiramate, used individually or in combination, can significantly reduce weight regain in patients after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery. The retrospective study paper, 'The Mitigating Effect of Phentermine and Topiramate on Weight Regain after Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery', was published in Obesity.

The British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society (BOMSS) has written a letter to British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, welcoming his plans to launch an anti-obesity strategy and urging him to take urgent action to help the NHS to rapidly introduce effective treatment for people with severe obesity.

Baxter International will provide financing for a grant-funded fellowship coordinated in conjunction with the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN), which will significantly contribute to the ESPEN Fellowship Grants initiative and increase the number of early-career researchers awarded, allowing to fund and develop more original research in topics related to nutrition and metabolism.

Preoperative weight loss, even at a moderate degree (ie >0% to <5%), is associated with lower risk of 30-day mortality following bariatric surgery, according to a study involving nearly half a million patients by researchers from University of Iowa College of Public Health, the University of Iowa, Iowa City, and Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

Allurion is supporting customers around the world during COVID-19 with an expanded digital offering, in response to recent data that indicates that individuals with obesity are at higher risk of poorer outcomes from COVID-19 and that quarantine measures may lead to weight gain. The company has expanded access to telenutrition for both existing and new patients and providers, and enhanced its proprietary program to include at-home fitness, mental health and nutritional content.

Researchers from the Hubrecht Institute and Utrecht University have generated an in-depth description of the human hormone-producing cells of the gut in a large collaborative effort with other research teams. In the study, ‘High Resolution mRNA and Secretome Atlas of Human Enteroendocrine Cells’, published in the journal Cell, the researchers developed an extensive toolbox to study human hormone-producing cells in tiny versions of the gut grown in the lab called organoids.

Analysis of data from 147 countries has uncovered new insights into the positive relationship between national income and obesity rates, according to researchers from State University of New York at Buffalo. The study, ‘The association between national income and adult obesity prevalence: Empirical insights into temporal patterns and moderators of the association using 40 years of data across 147 countries’, was published in PLoS ONE.

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin are calling on the government in Ireland to change recommendations for vitamin D supplements after publishing data that highlights the association between vitamin D levels and mortality from COVID-19.

An international team of experts has issued a guidance paper that identifies patients with the greatest need for bariatric and metabolic surgery, as experts warn delaying treatment could put them at a greater risk of complications from their disease, as well as from COVID-19.

Scientists from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have found a new method of reducing human body weight and fat mass using weighted vests. The outcomes from the study indicate that there is something comparable to built-in bathroom scales that contributes to keeping body weight and, by the same token, fat mass constant.

Men who had obesity in their late teens are more at risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in the leg or lung in adult life, according to a study from the University of Gothenburg study. The risk rises successively and is highest in those who had severe obesity in adolescence. The outcomes were reported in the paper, 'Obesity in adolescent men increases the risk of venous thromboembolism in adult life', published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

Despite overall increases in insurance coverage for low-income individuals in Medicaid expansion states, some gaps remain for individuals who have obesity, according to a recent study by a team of researchers at the University of Georgia.

In a recent study, ‘Banding the Pouch with a Non-adjustable Ring as Revisional Procedure in Patients with Insufficient Results After Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass: Short-term Outcomes of a Multicenter Cohort Study’, published in Obesity Surgery, researchers from The Netherlands reported the outcomes from the first multi-centre revisional banded bypass procedure in a relatively high number of patients.

The FDA has provided an update on the potential risks of over-inflation (spontaneous hyperinflation - the spontaneous filling of intragastric balloons with additional air or liquid while inside a patient’s stomach, typically resulting in the need for early device removal), acute pancreatitis and deaths in patients with Orbera and ReShape liquid-filled intragastric balloons used for weight loss in adult patients with obesity.

On Thursday, 30th April 2020, from 18:00 – 20:00 (Central European Time), BARIAlink will host the 35th BARIAlink Academy Virtual Classroom, with the aim of improving the knowledge and skills of bariatric and metabolic specialists to deal with complex cases. This latest online virtual classroom will consist of a series of presentations, discussions and polls, and will feature a special topic on ‘Visceral obesity: impact on COVID-19 pneumonia’, by Prof Dr Jan Mulier (AZ Sint Jan Brugge, Belgium).

An international review has reported that elderly people with diabetes who contract COVID-19 are at a much higher risk of dying from the disease and the virus may actually trigger the onset of diabetes in normally healthy people. Authored by an international panel of experts in the field of diabetes, they came together to provide guidance and practical recommendations for the management of diabetes for clinicians in both developed and developing countries.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne, Germany, have discovered that a group of nerve cells in the brains of mice promotes the consumption of high-fat food. If these so-called nociceptin neurons in the hypothalamus are activated, the animals start to eat more. The findings, ‘PNOCARC Neurons Promote Hyperphagia and Obesity upon High-Fat-Diet Feeding’, were published in the journal Neuron.

Adolescent obesity is a serious and growing public health problem that threatens both current and future health outcomes, according to an editorial by Drs Leonard H Epstein (SUNY Distinguished Professor and Division Chief of Behavioral Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at University at Buffalo (UB)) and Teresa Quattrin (a UB Distinguished Professor and senior associate dean for research integration in the Jacobs School).

A study led by Yale Cancer Center (YCC) researchers has demonstrated in mice that hormones released from the pancreas itself can advance pancreatic cancer and that weight loss can stop this process in its early stages. Pancreatic cancer is expected to become the second-deadliest cancer in the US by 2030, driven in part by rising obesity rates. The research, ‘Endocrine-Exocrine Signaling Drives Obesity-Associated Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma’, was published in the journal Cell.

A meta-analysis designed to determine the hierarchies of different bariatric surgeries in patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), has reported that one anastomosis (mini) gastric bypass (OAGB/MGB) is more likely to achieve diabetes remission compared with other bariatric surgeries. However, biliopancreatic diversion without duodenal switch (BPD) appears to be the most effective surgery for achieving long‐term diabetes remission.

The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) continues to provide recommendations and information regarding surgical response to the COVID19 crisis, which are intended to provide surgeons with additional information to help manage surgical patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are not formal guidelines and, due to time constraints, SAGES has not reviewed them by utilising its standard rigorous guidelines process.

Obesity increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) by at least six times, regardless of genetic predisposition to the disease, according to research, ‘Obesity, unfavourable lifestyle and genetic risk of type 2 diabetes: a case-cohort study’, published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, EASD).

Individuals with diabetes are at increased risk for bacterial, parasitic and viral infections, according to a study, ‘Coronavirus infections and type 2 diabetes-shared pathways with therapeutic implications’, published Endocrine Reviews, and demonstrates how intersections of the coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and type 2 diabetes may require new approaches in treatment for hospitalised patients.

The International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO) has issued recommendations to its global healthcare providers aimed at keeping all metabolic and bariatric surgery patients and practice staff in a safe as environment as possible.

Younger people with obesity are at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms, according to two studies published in the journals Clinical Infectious Diseases and medRxiv, which highlight that inflammation throughout the body associated with obesity could be a powerful factor in the severity of COVID-19 and could be even more significant than heart or lung disease.

A UCLA study conducted with mice has found that a gene called reprimo, which is expressed by certain neurons in the brain, may play a role in menopause-related weight gain, a phenomenon not linked to increased eating. Their findings were featured in the paper, ‘Hypothalamic oestrogen receptor alpha establishes a sexually dimorphic regulatory node of energy expenditure’, published in Nature Metabolism.

Apollo Endosurgery has announced that the FDA has completed the review of the final Post-Approval Study (PAS) Report for the ORBERA Intragastric Balloon System and accepted that all post-approval study requirements have been fulfilled. The ORBERA Post Approval Study was a requirement following the US FDA's approval of ORBERA in August of 2015. The study was a multi-centre, open label, prospective study with a primary safety endpoint and its secondary endpoint being effectiveness. All study endpoints were successfully met.

Researchers from in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and UofL Health, James Graham Brown Cancer Center at the University of Louisville, have published an article which proposes a unique theory that a protein secreted by fat cells drives the development of breast cancer.

The behaviour of previous coronaviruses together with physiological characteristics of diabetes may help explain why people with diabetes have a higher risk of developing COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, according to a paper, ‘COVID-19 Pandemic, Corona Viruses, and Diabetes Mellitus’, published in the American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Enara Health, a developer of a technology-powered personalised weight loss programme, is expanding telehealth availability of its programme to all residents in California, Texas and Illinois. This rollout represents an earlier-than-planned first stage of a US rollout of the Enara Health platform, a clinical weight loss programme that takes a multi-faceted approach to obesity treatment.

Allurion Technologies is one step closer to having its Elipse gastric balloon enter the US market, after company announced the PMA submission of the device to the FDA. The submission comes after Allurion raised US$34 million in new funding through a securities financing and a growth capital term loan.

Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center have discovered an unexpected biological pathway by which brown fat cells can translate energy into heat - immature fat cells can generate heat without gathering fat may open opportunities to treat obesity and diabetes.

A larger thigh circumference may be associated with lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of heart disease in people with obesity, according to a study by researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China. They found that in overweight and people with obesity obese, larger thigh circumferences were associated with lower blood pressure. These findings suggest that carrying more weight on the thighs may be a marker of better heart health in Chinese people in these weight classes, who are at a greater risk of heart disease.

The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) and the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES) has released recommendations based on best available evidence and expert opinion from the global surgical community that will help to protect patients, their surgeons and staff from COVID-19.

The joint statement states that the virus has demonstrated a propensity to spread at an exponential rate in several countries, significantly impacting many lives and affecting our practice as healthcare professionals. The statement recommends that:

Two new studies from the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) shed light on the relationship between obesity and the use of prescription opioids in the United States. One study reported that joint pain, back pain, injury, and muscle/nerve pain, which prior studies have linked with obesity, emerged as important types of pain in explaining excess prescription opioid use among adults with obesity.

Patients with superobesity (BMI>50) are prone to unconscious food impulses and cravings that may make it challenging for them to maintain weight loss after bariatric surgery, according to Brazilian research that was accepted for presentation at ENDO 2020 (the Endocrine Society's annual meeting that was cancelled due to the COVIUD-19 pandemic) and will be published in a special supplemental section of the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

Rhythm Pharmaceuticals has completed its rolling submission of a New Drug Application (NDA) to the FDA for setmelanotide for the treatment of pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) deficiency obesity and leptin receptor (LEPR) deficiency obesity.

As patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) flood hospitals, the health care system must not only determine how to redeploy limited resources and staff to care for them but must also make well-calculated decisions to provide other types of critical care. For surgeons, this type of critical care involves performing an emergency operation to treat a ruptured appendix or perforated colon, to both virus-exposed and non-exposed patients, while keeping both hospital personnel and non-exposed patients safe.

Patients with obesity may lose more weight if they undergo bariatric surgery before they develop diabetes, according to a study, accepted for presentation at ENDO 2020 (the Endocrine Society's annual meeting that was cancelled due to the COVIUD-19 pandemic), that will be published in a special supplemental section of the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

Both obesity and diabetes are common, with more than one-third of US adults are affected by these two conditions. Among patients that have obesity and diabetes, bariatric surgery can lead to remission of both of these diseases.

Elective bariatric surgery in both the NHS and private sectors will effectively cease for the next 3- 6 months to help the NHS cope with the extraordinary pressures that the coronavirus outbreak has brought.

In the midst of this organised chaos and uncertainty it’s important that we support each other, our colleagues and our patients.

Bariatric surgery resulted in 60% fewer fatal and non-fatal heart attacks and strokes among 3,701 men and women who had surgery, compared to the same number of patients who did not, during an average of 11 years following the surgery. In addition, patients who had bariatric surgery lost significantly more weight (an average of over 10 kg more) and type 2 diabetes was more likely to improve to the point where the patients no longer required medication to maintain normal blood sugar levels.

People with severe obesity who underwent bariatric surgery maintained significantly more weight loss at five years than those who did not have surgery, according to a Kaiser Permanente study. Although some weight regain was common after surgery, regain to within 5% of baseline was rare, especially in patients who had gastric bypass instead of sleeve gastrectomy.

Researchers generally agree that genetic and gut microbiome composition and activity are important factors in determining who has and who does not have obesity. As interest and understanding of the human microbiome increases, researchers are increasingly looking to the gut for answers that can lead to new, more effective diagnostics and therapies.

Bariatric surgery significantly reduces colorectal cancer (CRC) risk in patients with obesity to the extent that they share the same risk of colorectal cancer as the general population, according to researchers from Université Côte d’Azur, Nice, France. However, for patients with obesity who do not undergo bariatric surgery, the risk is 34% above that of the general population.

Endoscopic treatment of laparoscopic one anastomosis gastric bypass complications (LOAGB) complications are effective and relatively safe, according to researchers from Tel Aviv University and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel. The study authors noted that anastomosis-related complications were more “amenable” to endoscopic treatment, compared to staple line leaks.

Researchers at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in São Paulo State, Brazil, have developed a computer program that analyses molecules in blood plasma to search for biomarkers that identify individuals who are at risk of becoming overweight and developing obesity-related diseases. The project was conducted in Brazil with funding from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) .

Weight loss should not be the primary motivation behind healthy lifestyle changes, according to researchers from the University of Alberta, Canada, who claim that there is a growing body of research showing that upwards of 95 percent of those who achieve any sort of meaningful weight loss will pack it back on, and then some, within a couple of years.

A team of engineers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is developing a virtual reality-based training device that can help train medical professionals to perform endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG). The device, known as a ViBE (Virtual Bariatric Endoscopic) simulator is being supported by a grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have discovered why obesity causes high blood pressure and identified potential ways of treating that form of high blood pressure. Small arteries in our body control blood pressure. Scientists have suspected that hypertension in obesity is related to problems in endothelial cells that line these small arteries. The reasons for this, however, have been unclear, until now. The researchers have already confirmed their discovery in human tissue samples and used it to reverse high blood pressure in lab mice.

Bacteria may be involved in the development of type 2 diabetes, according to a study by researchers from Université Laval, the Québec Heart and Lung Institute (IUCPQ) and McMaster University. The authors found that the blood, liver and certain abdominal fat deposits in diabetics have a different bacterial signature than in non-diabetics.

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) was associated with larger and more persistent improvements in glycaemic control and 25% lower rates of T2DM relapse compared with sleeve gastrectomy (SG) patients, according to the latest analyses from the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORNet) Bariatric Study.

A preclinical study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has shown how the weight loss drug, liraglutide, crosses the brain's blood barrier to engage with a region of the brainstem known as the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS), which is responsible for balancing food intake and energy expenditure. Filling this gap meets a need that has become a priority for researchers looking for new treatments to help fight the increasing rates of obesity.

Older workers with obesity are at a higher risk of prolonged sickness absence or losing their jobs for health reasons than those of normal weight, with women affected significantly more than men, according to researchers from the University of Southampton. The study studied investigated the association between BMI and prolonged sickness absence, cutting down at work and health-related job loss among 2,299 men and 2,425 women aged between 50 and 64 years.

The UK's National Health Service (NHS) needs to do more to address the ingrained stigma and discrimination faced by people with obesity, according to Dr Stuart Flint, Associate Professor in the Psychology of Obesity at the University of Leeds, who believes that negative attitudes around weight gain are pervasive in the NHS and they can affect the way patients are treated.

Researchers from the CNRS, Inrae, University of Burgundy, Université de Paris, Inserm and University of Luxembourg have just revealed the mechanisms in the brain that lead to feelings of satiety after eating – and involve a series of reactions triggered by a rise in blood glucose levels. The study, ‘Postprandial Hyperglycemia Stimulates Neuroglial Plasticity in Hypothalamic POMC Neurons after a Balanced Meal’, which was conducted on mice, was published in Cell Reports.

Coinciding with World Obesity Day, over 100 medical and scientific organisations have pledged their support for a consensus statement that recognises unscientific public narratives of obesity as a major cause of weight stigma and calls for strong policies and legislation to prevent weight-based discrimination.

The childhood obesity rate may increase 2.4% or 1.27 million children if school closures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus continue into December, according to the study, ‘Projecting the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on childhood obesity in the U.S.: A microsimulation model’, published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science.

Researchers from the Open University of Catalonia and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra Department of Communication, Barcelona, Spain respectively, have performed a study based on the assumption that advertising is one of the factors that contributes to the obesogenic environment.

Public health scientists predict that school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic will exacerbate the epidemic of childhood obesity in the US, according to researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Dr Andrew Rundle, associate professor of epidemiology at and colleagues, expect that COVID-19-related school closures will double out-of-school time this year for many children in the US and will exacerbate risk factors for weight gain associated with summer recess.

Most resident physicians training in internal medicine do not feel adequately prepared to manage obesity in their patients, according to the results of a survey from Stanford University researchers. The results were accepted for presentation at ENDO 2020 (the Endocrine Society's annual meeting that was cancelled due to the COVIUD-19 pandemic) and will be published in a special supplemental section of the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

Bariatric surgery may be an effective treatment for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), according to Portuguese research that was accepted for presentation at ENDO 2020 (the Endocrine Society's annual meeting that was cancelled due to the COVIUD-19 pandemic) and will be published in a special supplemental section of the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

Patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes who received Revita duodenal mucosal resurfacing (DMR) had significantly improved blood glucose levels, liver insulin sensitivity and other metabolic measures three months later, according to new data from the REVITA-2 study. These results, from a mixed meal tolerance test, have helped researchers verify the insulin sensitising mechanism by which hydrothermal ablation of the duodenum improves blood glucose levels in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Zealand Pharma, a Copenhagen-based biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of innovative peptide-based medicines, has announced positive topline results from a Phase 2 clinical trial using mini-doses of dasiglucagon in individuals who have undergone gastric bypass bariatric surgery.

Researchers at the University of Chicago have described how part of the nervous system changes in adults affected by obesity, and what role this plays in appetite, eating behaviours and even sleep cycles.

Patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes who received Revita duodenal mucosal resurfacing (DMR) had significantly improved blood glucose levels, liver insulin sensitivity and other metabolic measures three months later, according to new data from the REVITA-2 study. These results, from a mixed meal tolerance test, have helped researchers verify the insulin sensitising mechanism by which hydrothermal ablation of the duodenum improves blood glucose levels in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Researchers at the University of Chicago have described how part of the nervous system changes in adults affected by obesity, and what role this plays in appetite, eating behaviours and even sleep cycles.